A1 Journal article (refereed)
Suicide, Social Bodies, and Danger : Taboo, Biopower, and Parental Worry in the Films Bridgend (2015) and Bird Box (2018) (2020)

Kosonen, H. (2020). Suicide, Social Bodies, and Danger : Taboo, Biopower, and Parental Worry in the Films Bridgend (2015) and Bird Box (2018). Journal of somaesthetics, 6(2), 48-63. https://doi.org/10.5278/ojs.jos.v6i2.5739

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Kosonen, Heidi

Journal or series: Journal of somaesthetics

eISSN: 2246-8498

Publication year: 2020

Volume: 6

Issue number: 2

Pages range: 48-63

Publisher: Aalborg University Press

Place of Publication: Aalborg

Publication country: Denmark

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5278/ojs.jos.v6i2.5739

Publication open access: Openly available

Publication channel open access: Open Access channel

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/73758

Abstract

In my article I study two Anglophone feature films, Jeppe Rønde's Bridgend (2015) and Susan Bier's Bird Box (2018), from the viewpoints offered by visual cultural studies and the theoretical domains of taboo and biopower. Both systems of control respond to risks and dangers to society, taboo through ideas of contagion and biopower through normative, especially medical discourses by authorized instances of knowledge production. They are reflected also in the audio-visual popular culture seeking to make sense of suicide through entertaining and artistic means. The two films I study present suicide as a contagion that has supernatural (Bird Box) and social origins (Bridgend), and as a force of nature that threatens individuals from the outside yet also from within as madness (Bird Box), or as irrationality or vulnerability of youth (Bridgend). By analyzing suicide's representation in both films, I discuss the ways western thinking trying to athom voluntary death reflects senses of danger attached to suicide under taboo and biopower and in response to the humane emotions of love and fear of loss. I also discuss how taboo and biopower can be seen to generate this threat to individual lives by their suppression of living and dying.

Keywords: suicide; taboos; tree-covered hills; concern; parents; films; representation (mental objects); effects (results); transfer of training

Free keywords: voluntary death; biopower; suicide contagion; parental worry; parental worry; contemporary cinema; Anglophone cinema; Rønde, Jeppe; Bier, Susan

Contributing organizations

Ministry reporting: Yes

Reporting Year: 2020

JUFO rating: 1